The Democrats, as usual, have only themselves to blame. But we're still happy to help both them and the Republicans if it means the voters might see their votes counted and counted accurately, no matter who will ultimately be declared the winner of any election. You're welcome, Republicans (and Democrats).

After years of Democrats refusing to use the f-word (fraud) or discussing concerns about the s-word (stolen) for elections, for fear of being declared conspiracy theorists and sore-losers by the Republicans, we'll note that Republicans have no such fears. They never did. And they are happy to don enormous and shiny tin-foil hats any time to claim any conspiracy they need to, regardless of the actual evidence (or lack thereof) to support their theory.

They will claim --- even at the highest official levels of their party --- that "Democrats are stealing the election," "stuff[ing] new ballots into the ballot box" and all other manner of unsubstantiated allegations, if they believe it might help their candidate "win." The voters be damned.

To that end, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has now gone so far as to set up a "Minnesota Recount" conspiracy theory blog. The site is devoted to the advancement of making and reposting unsubstantiated claims from around the wingnut 'sphere --- and that would include liar John Fund's Wall Street Journal --- that Al Franken and the Democrats are in the process of "stealing" the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota...

While the Republicans' outrageous claims are, obviously, a publicity ploy for the wingnut echo chamber --- which is starving for red meat to sate their ravenous claims of Democratic Voter Fraud Gone Wild --- given the electoral processes and systems in place, Democrats have opened the door to allow for such outrageous claims whether they have any actual merit (or even just the appearance of "merit") because they've spent so many years allowing for the Republican-backed loss-of-transparency-through-privatization of our voting systems, while otherwise utterly failing to stand up for themselves in one hinky election over the years after another.

Here's the kind of nonsense the NRSC, an official Republican Party body, mind you, has posted on their shameless new website...

[J]udging from the odd doings in Minnesota, some in their party wouldn’t mind adding to their jackpot by stealing a Senate seat for left-wing joker Al Franken.
...
Democrats have a political incentive to cut corners to steal a seat if they can get away with it.
...
Stealing Minnesota?
...
[I]t’s pretty clear the Democrats are stealing the election.
...
Minnesota Mischief
...
Joker Al Franken’s campaign tried to add votes to their tally that had already been disqualified.
...
Franken Tries To Steal The Election Again
...
The Al Franken campaign today tried to stuff new ballots into the ballot box in a brazen, last minute act of desperation.
...
The Franken campaign is running out of ways to steal the election. So they are flailing for lame mechanisms to do so.
...
MN Senate Race Being Hijacked?

Mind you, those are all actual quotes from actual blog items at the new Republican conspiracy theory site. They are not posts from commenters, but from officially sanctioned NRSC postings in light of just 206 votes --- out of some 3 million ballots cast in the state on November 4th --- which currently separate Franken from his Republican incumbent opponent, Sen. Norm Coleman, according to the state's officially reported results. A manual recount of the state's paper ballots --- which are currently tabulated on faulty optical-scan systems made by ES&S and Diebold --- is scheduled to begin November 19th.

The above quoted assertions from the NRSC conspiracy theory site are all stuff and nonsense, of course, but without real transparency in the electoral system, such that every party and every voter can have full confidence in the results of every election, the type of garbage seen above, from the shameless, unapologetic wingnuts, will likely be allowed to grab a foothold on the American conciousness.

Of course, it also helps that the Right similarly own the corporate media, which will be all too happy to echo the charges, substantiated or not, just as dutifully as they were willing to echo the GOP's ACORN "voter fraud" hoax in the days and weeks prior to the general election. And again, it's because the Dems have allowed unfettered corporate Republican control of the American media as much as they've allowed unfettered corporate Republican control of the American electoral system.

Nonetheless, there are a number of very specific points that we laid out over the weekend that the Republicans in MN would be as wise to take note of as Democrats. That article lays out, step by step, what can be done by all parties to try and ensure a transparent and accurate count of all of the ballots cast, in such way that any funny business --- by any party --- would be nearly impossible to pull off without getting noticed.

As we made clear at the time, in that article, election integrity is not about Republicans or Democrats. It's about ensuring that all legal voters who wish to vote actually get to vote and that all of those votes are counted and counted accurately, such that the candidate who receives the most of them actually wins, the winner needn't serve under a cloud of suspicion, and the loser and his/her supporters recognize beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were bested by their competition.

So, dear Republicans, go read that article. And, if you have the guts, or a shred of actual interest in a fair, accurate, and transparent outcome in MN's U.S. Senate election, and its upcoming recount, we give you our permission to run this article, in its entirety (and only in its entirety), on your MN conspiracy theory blog.

In fact, we both challenge you to do so and offer to help you if you have any questions about it all as we have been happy to do for other parties in other states, such as Alaska. We're pretty easy to contact in that regard...Even if we're not holding our breath that you will take any of our very well-meaning advice.

Obviously, it's far easier to put forward unsubstantiated conspiracy theories than it is to take actual action on behalf of your voters and all of the voters in Minnesota.

UPDATE 1/15/09: We're not precisely certain on what date they did so, but recently, the RSCC has removed the entire MinnesotaRecount.com site, replacing it with a notice which reads only:

Site Temporarily Unavailable

We apologize for the inconvenience. Please contact the webmaster/ tech support immediately to have them rectify this.

error id: "bad_httpd_conf"

UPDATE 4/16/09: As of today, several days since MN's 3-judge, bi-partisan election contest court's finding that "Franken received the highest number of lawfully cast ballots in the November 4, 2008 general election for United States Senator and is entitled to receive the certificate of election.", the RSCC's conspiracy theory website is still display as "Temporary Unavailable" as detailed in the update above.

As long promised, The BRAD BLOG has covered your electoral system 2008, fiercely and independently, like no other media outlet in the nation. Please support our work with a donation to help us keep going. If you like, we'll send you some great, award-winning election integrity documentary films in return! Details on that right here...

The machine that Harri Hursti hacked was not an AccuVote-OS as is being widely and repeatedly reported --- it was a TSx. The TSx is a central tabulator --- the OS is a precinct machine. I believe that the AccuVote-OS may have the same vulnerability, but it is not accurate to say that it's the same machine. Because it's a precinct machine, it would be much more work to "fix" than a central tabulator. So does Minnesota centrally count on a TSx? And is the model name a technicality, or are they quite different machines?

{ED NOTE: You are incorrect here, on several points, Creid. Hursti hacked both the Diebold AccuVote-OS (optical scanner) in Leon County, FL, and the Diebold AccuVote-TSx (touch-screen) in Emery County, UT. Neither of them is a "central tabulator". The central tabulator system used by Diebold is called GEMS. That's been hacked by others, and by Diebold's own admission, drops votes regularly when they are uploaded from one of the OS or TS machines to it. MN uses the Diebold AccuVote-OS precinct-based optical scanner in several of their precincts (two of the three largest) and ES&S precinct-based op-scanners in the rest. Hope that clarifies --- BF}

The ES&S M100 does have several known issues that have come up both in testing and in elections, and yet some voting machine techs also think it is a workhorse. In any case, there is no voting machine that would be likely to perform well if it went three years without maintenance, as the reports say the Michigan M100s did. By now, Ruth Johnson should know what the full diagnosis is on the M110's and it would be good to make that public, so that other states using that machine have additional information on what may cause them not to function.

Beyond the technological aspects of the election in Minnesota, there are some very simple on the ground aspects that will affect election outcome. How well do their statutes cover absentee ballot security and handling? And how well are they carried out in real life on the ground election districts/precincts? One photo from Ramsey County showed stacks of bankers' boxes said to contain absentee ballots (opened? recently delivered and unprocessed? In a locked storage area and shown to the reporter? Or in the election official's office?) Likeewise, the insecure transport of all the ballots is another area to look at. If a single official was running around making election day deliveries of absentee ballots, that's not goiing to build voter confidence in the outcome.

With two weeks between the election and the recount, ballot security again looms as a factor to understand better. I would not want Ramsey County storing their absentee ballots in those unsealed bankers' boxes. The chain of custody on the ballots could be compromised before the ballots are even presented for counting.

The manipulation of information is egregious! Our elections are at the LEAST QUESTIONABLE. I'm a JOE, and let me tell you I have MANY CONCERNS. Brad has been right on target. This is a participatory government and LAND DAMN IT!

Thanks, Brad, for the correction. I thought I knew and remebered it wrong. I hate it when that happens. Should have double checked with a search. The TSx is a DRE machine, and the AVOS is op scan, that is the difference, not that they are central versus precinct. I was unaware that both TSx and AVOS had been tested by Hursti. I knew about TSx and also did know that in my state where we use AVOS, the state determined that our equipment could be vulnerable to the Hursti hack. I thought they extrapolated somehow to figure that out. Er....thanks for the long overdue update and sorry to cloud the issue instead of clarify.

I wonder - are the Republicans concerned that they didn't manage to steal the MN election, so they are making wild accusations before the recount so that they can cry "Fraud" in case Franken actually wins? Hmmmmmmmmm?

TEDEGER, I'm not a mind reader, but I find your argument persuasive. "Sore loser" apparently doesn't work as well at the moment or perhaps at all anymore, especially now that more people have informed themselves about the real need to hang in there and count every vote/make sure the election was run right. it's possible to aggressively make sure you have done all the right things for your candidate and not come off as a spinmeister.

Always interesting to watch the official decisions and see which ones appear to be procedurally correct decisions that work to the advantage or disadvantage of one candidate or the other-- and which seem to be politically inspired.

Hennepin County's refusal to reexamine 400-some absentee ballots is one such decision I'd like to understand further.

Yippie! I cannot wait till all you compassionate hypocrites wipe the retarded and any other feeble person off the planet. In the 40+ years the feminist liberals have run it, you have destroyed the black family, the hispanic family, the blue collar family and now the middle class....The Republicans sent all of the jobs overseas, but there is no more substance to the society...The intellectuals created the greatest dictatorships in history (think Hitler, Stalin, Mao) and are steering us right back towards that. Human sexuality has become selfish transactions between two self absorbed scumbags with no rhyme or reason. People are basically out for themselves and do not care about anyone but themselves. You are lucky if you have any kind of friend in the Northeast, even if it is a family member...I do not like either side (liberal or conservative)...I wish someone would throw an intervention for the lower classes and the handicapped. In memoriam - the handicapped.

Just to clarify that the Hursti Hack in our documentary "Hacking Democracy" was indeed carried out on the Diebold AccuVote OS (Optical Scan) machine... However Harri Hursti ALSO hacked the GEMS Central Tabulator in Leon County that day. In our film you can see that the rigged memory card is finally uploaded to GEMS and Harri's hacked vote totals appear on the GEMS tabulator screen. So Harri hacked all three parts of the Diebold OS system - the memory card, the Scanner and the Central Tabulator. (And, as you correctly say Brad, later in Utah Harri hacked the Diebold AccuVote TS toucscreen machines.)

If the newly discovered Franken votes were legit, wouldn't that be reflected by an increase Obama votes as well as other Democratic candidates on the ticket? How is it that they are finding nothing but Franken votes, some that were allegedly in someones car this whole time, and they are only from three specific, traditionally liberal counties? I guess we are supposed to believe that many people were so far to the left in MN that they voted for Franken but would not vote for Obama, is marxism to conservative of an idea for the Franken faries?

Ah yes, that undoubtedly explains the 8 years of "Commander in Thief", "We was robbed", "Supreme Court handed Bush the election", "Palm Beach County was rigged to hose Gore", "Florida Recounts weren't done right", "Disenfranchisement in Ohio in 04", "Stole it again in 04", etc. etc.

You are full of self-righteous BS --- Dems have spent 8 years whining about "stolen" elections, and they took the last 4 starting on 5 Nov 04 to plan out exactly how they were going to steal it in 08 --- Black Panthers at the polls, Acorn registering the Dallas Cowboys starting lineup to vote, busing "voters" from Chicago to Iowa, Nebraska and Texas (Biden himself said "hello Chicago" to the Iowa 'voters' at the Iowa caucus). Obama pulled out the classic Chicago mob politics and replayed Lyndon Johnson and Mayor Daley in the 1960 election.

Why do you have to be so incendiary? Name calling and conjecture get us nowhere and destroy credibility. If Franken wins, dems will be forever enshrined as stealing 2008. Links to Chicago political machine methods will become "truth" We don't need it.

I'm agreeing with KevinMo. Al Gore himself went on Letterman and said he won the election. Dems have spent 8 years whining about "stolen" elections. Acorn did committ fraud. Fired employees are now giving interviews (not republicans) saying they were following orders.

Let Obama, Reid and Pelosi have to deal the Al (The Man who has failed at everything He has ever done) Frankin. D.C. is a bad joke anyway with all of the Goverment bailouts. We are scrwed either way. Let them deal with this jerk-off.

The Dem's don't need to win any other vote. With the Worm Republicans they have 60 votes. Snowe, Colins, Specter, Lugar and Voinovich. You can get 3 of these 5 any time. Just give them something they want.

I note the trolls are out in force. They must be REALLY afraid that they are going to lose Coleman, which means that the crooked, vote-flipping machines will be exposed, AGAIN. As to one of the queries above (which really should not be necessary), they are COUNTING Franken - Coleman. There is no reason for the Obama - McCain totals to change, unless someone asks for a recount there.

HaHa Keninmo you are very entertaining. Well, on the bright side, you'll have the next eight years to whine about 'ACORN', the 'Black Panthers', the Cowboys, busing voters out of state, etc, etc.
But don't worry, you'll have Rush, Sean, BillO, Michael and all the other right wink talk radio fear/hate mongers to keep you company!

As a neophyte election judge on Tuesday, I was very impressed with the team we had. Both the Head Judge and the Registrar were strong Republicans but I never heard them say or do anything other than encourage people to vote for whomever they wanted. Just ignore what Pawlenty and others are saying about the election judges being partisan - ignore the slander. We worked from 5:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. in my precinct and the whole process was SEAMLESS.
In the recount process, the Obama/ McCain votes would not be looked at so those totals will not change. The only votes being contested (and counted) are those for Franken/ Coleman. May the person with the most votes win!!

I think you shouldn't be able to hack into ANY vote machine!!! The fact that you can go on youtube and see many videos of many different people hacking into them tells me they should be taken out of existence. Aren't a lot of them made in outsourced countries, too? With slave wage workers who don't give a crap about quality? Not that that even matters, if they were made flawlessly, they'd be hackable because they're designed that way!

The Obama votes will indeed be looked at in the recount. Teams of reviewers are going to be looking at what 'might' have been the intent of the "voter."

Keep in mind, officials have not yet answered whether all counties employed a "precinct" scanner. Nobody has yet answered whether all such precinct scanners were utilized according to HAVA regulations to notify the voter at the precinct of over-votes. No answers have been forthcoming regarding precinct optical scanner malfunctions. Nobody has answered whether functioning scanners were set to reject over-votes and accept undervotes.

Nobody has yet answered precisely how many precisley ballots were undervoted in the Senate race but not the Presidential race.

Without those details before, stress before, the recount, nobody from here on out could trust the results of the recount.

We have nothing from which to start other than the difference between Coleman and Franken has already been narrowed, primarily by newfound votes due to whatever the reasons.

Now that the difference is KNOWN and without the forementioned details also being known, there is every reason to suspect the election "could" be frauded.

After all, it takes only a couple 100 votes to be discovered as the actual "intent" of the voter in undervoted blank Senate areas to provide a tie. Only one more than that to declare Franken the winner.

That the tally has narrowed so far down is itself suspicious. It's a lot easier to find a couple 100 more votes than it is to find 800 or 1000 or more.

Bradblog should be as aware of all of those issues and demand accountability to provide those details, and any others now, before the recount.

Every paper ballot printed and unused - how many

Every paper ballot issued and used - how many

Every paper ballot issued and used, but voided for a replacement ballot - how many

BTW every paper ballot printed should have had at least one imprinted number on its side. The number isn't a tracking number that imposes on voter privacy. It's supposed to be documented how many ballots the election bureau had printed for distribution in each district.

The last point makes 'finding' of 32 or however many paper ballots in the trunk of a poll judge's car so **** suspicious, for starters. What are the numbers on those and were those separated to be determined if the numbers matched those distributed to that precinct for this election?

That voted paper ballots at the precinct may have had undervotes in only the Senate race and no other race is not suspicious because voters have the right to leave any amount of races 'blank.'

The optical scan at the precinct enables the voter to review a ballot before casting one, and it should be set to 'reject' over-votes because those void a paper ballot contest when they occur.

Not so with under-voted paper ballot. The optical scanner notifies the voter of such with wording such as no selection. The sighted voter visually inspects the ballot a second time, and if the voter wants to make any changes, can do so before casting the ballot as is.

That's supposed to be a benefit of the optical scanners at the precinct.

It is a scam for any undervoted ballots which have already received the precinct optical scan review by the voter himself or herself to be determined as not the intent of the voter.

Not having any hard numbers to start shows an absolute potential for fraud.